No Right Answer: Most Depressing Series Ending

[Product Placement]

I'm gonna agree on the Dinosaurs being the most depressed one. I never actually saw that show but for me, the series with the most inferred depressing ending is Alf: The animated series. It was a sort of a prequel, showing you Alf's life on his home world and his day to day life, interacting with friends and family and his girlfriend.

Anyone familiar with the original series, knows that ALF is one of the few who survived, when his planet got destroyed. Everyone featured in the animated show, with the sole exception of Alf, were not gonna survive that event. Fact of the matter was that they were all already dead, since each episode began and ended with a live action segment of Alf, on Earth, reminiscing about past events.

But at very least, they never showed you an episode where the planet actually exploded.

 

[Urh]

While I'm not quite sure if it falls into the category of depressing, the Babylon 5 finale is a hell of a tear-jerker. I always get a little choked up at the end when

Spoiler

Babylon 5 is finally shut down. The way the music swells when the station is blown up gets me every time.

 

[anaphysik]

I never actually watched the ending to Dinosaurs, and the first time I learned of it was on Cracked (I somehow missed it, go figure), but while it does strike me as the most depressing ending to any show I know of, it also strikes me as entirely fitting.

Light-hearted show? Yes, but it was also a show with heavy social commentary. From sexual harrassment to mocking our dependency on television to the deplorable use of religion as a tool to make money, Dinosaurs used all those animatronics to make a point or two. Sometimes the best way to get under people's defenses is to trick them into believing they're watching something harmless.

I rememeber an old Disney cartoon based on the Chicken Little story, where a clever fox uses rumors, mass hysteria, and a guilible sap (Chicken "the sky is falling" Little) to steer an entire farm's worth of fowl into a cave, where he planned on devouring them at his leisure.

Do they escape? No. The fox won and kills them all (yeesh, it was a dark ending for a Disney cartoon). The point of the cartoon was to teach a moral about the dangers of rumors and getting caught up in panic and fear. It was there to teach us a lesson, not the characters.

Dinosaurs was the same way. The ending was to remind US of our potential future, not the dinosaurs. Pretty brave, I'd say.

I'm very glad someone said that; saved me the typing

I think Dan's thinking of the show through some mental filters. What made it so great was precisely how juuuust *not*-lighthearted it was. (Heck, it's not like depressing endings were even out-of-character for the show; see frex 'Family Challenge.')

Dinosaurs was a very seriously-themed show. It just presented its themes with a comedic, frequently sardonic, bent.

(Also, it was awesome and everyone should see it.)

 

[Firefilm]

I never actually watched the ending to Dinosaurs, and the first time I learned of it was on Cracked (I somehow missed it, go figure), but while it does strike me as the most depressing ending to any show I know of, it also strikes me as entirely fitting.

Light-hearted show? Yes, but it was also a show with heavy social commentary. From sexual harrassment to mocking our dependency on television to the deplorable use of religion as a tool to make money, Dinosaurs used all those animatronics to make a point or two. Sometimes the best way to get under people's defenses is to trick them into believing they're watching something harmless.

I rememeber an old Disney cartoon based on the Chicken Little story, where a clever fox uses rumors, mass hysteria, and a guilible sap (Chicken "the sky is falling" Little) to steer an entire farm's worth of fowl into a cave, where he planned on devouring them at his leisure.

Do they escape? No. The fox won and kills them all (yeesh, it was a dark ending for a Disney cartoon). The point of the cartoon was to teach a moral about the dangers of rumors and getting caught up in panic and fear. It was there to teach us a lesson, not the characters.

Dinosaurs was the same way. The ending was to remind US of our potential future, not the dinosaurs. Pretty brave, I'd say.

I'm very glad someone said that; saved me the typing

I think Dan's thinking of the show through some mental filters. What made it so great was precisely how juuuust *not*-lighthearted it was. (Heck, it's not like depressing endings were even out-of-character for the show; see frex 'Family Challenge.')

Dinosaurs was a very seriously-themed show. It just presented its themes with a comedic, frequently sardonic, bent.

(Also, it was awesome and everyone should see it.)

Don't you remove my filters! It took years to erect those. ...tehehe...erect...

 

[omicron1]

[politics]I'd have to go with the 2012 election.[/politics]

On topic: Firefly for the way it ended, David Tennant's portion of Doctor Who for emotional pull (They basically had three straight hours of sadness, loneliness, and goodbyes!)

 

[Ti0k0]

Nobody mentioning Requiem for a Dream?
I felt bad for a week!

 

[Ickorus]

Personally I think some of the most depressing show endings are when there's wasted potential or an unsatisfying conclusion like Lost, or when a series is cancelled before its time like Heroes.

That was a pretty screwed up ending to Dinosaurs though... you do have to wonder why the creators decide to give the ending such thematic whiplash.

I would argue that Heroes probably ran longer than it should have. I still haven't finished season 4. I just lost interest.

Also, better to separate depressing content from lame outcome in this thread. Rosanne's ending was depressing; Lost's ending was lame.

If you consider it as a complete show rather than an unfinished one, Star Gate Universe had a fairly depressing end. Poor Eli...

The problem with Heroes was that it suffered from idiot producer syndrome, someone somewhere along the line saw the success of the first season and told the writers they needed to make it last X more seasons and then when they watered down the plot to fit people started losing interest because the big questions simply weren't getting answered.

 

[mykalwane]

Nobody mentioning Requiem for a Dream?
I felt bad for a week!

That's a movie. Thus not a series.

 

[Joriss]

I remember seeing the dinosaurs ending as a kid. I didn't understand how a happy show could end so sad so I kinda shut out the ending in my mind for several years...

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Babylon 5 is my worst, in melancholic way. Really feels like you've lost something by the series ending and the events that happen. But Roseanne sounds pretty bad.

 

[GreenTeaGal]

Turns out the Dinosaurs series finale was put in the middle of the fine season as ep 7. Probably because it was THAT damn depressing. I saw the ep when it aired back in the mid 90's when the show was on syndication. The reruns abruptly stopped after that episode.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

I have nothing to contribute to this discussion as I have not seen enough of either of these shows to form an opinion. However I shall say: Thumbs up for Reboot in the background!

 

[Endocrom]

Loved Dinosaurs, that ending was pretty shocking but considering all the episodes that dealt with things like; steroid use, racism, native american displacement, and so much more I guess it's not that out of the norm.
[hr]I gave up on Rosanne long before the whole lotto and heart attack stuff happened.
[hr]I never saw the end of Sliders but I have a feeling it went out with a whimper too. Can anybody fill me in? Is it a contender?

 

[LordLundar]

What about M*A*S*H the final episode involves one of the main characters having a psychotic break because while hiding from North Koreans he snaps at a mother to keep her baby quiet so she kills it so that the North Koreans would not hear it.

This! And those North Korean Musicians that Charles took under his wing.....

Admittedly it had downer parts, but it wasn't a depressing ending. All of the major cast at the end returned home and though they were changed, they weren't in a pit of hopelessness that they couldn't recover from. I would call it at best bittersweet and realistic. They were all ecstatic to return home, but it was tempered with events that occurred while they were there, both good and bad.

 

[mykalwane]

Loved Dinosaurs, that ending was pretty shocking but considering all the episodes that dealt with things like; steroid use, racism, native american displacement, and so much more I guess it's not that out of the norm.
[hr]I gave up on Rosanne long before the whole lotto and heart attack stuff happened.
[hr]I never saw the end of Sliders but I have a feeling it went out with a whimper too. Can anybody fill me in? Is it a contender?

Yea Slider went out with a whimper, not a contender. Nothing really gets resolved. The season before the last one, that is where it should of ended. They combine two people into one for the sake of actors leaving and attempting to have some structure. If I remember correctly the last season didn't have the script writers of the show. Just a lot of bad blood was going on with the producers of the show and the people working on it. The real reason I think the last season is so horrible. Thinking, lets just replace them. We can keep this show going on. Pretty much if you didn't see the end of Sliders, you're better off.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Funny you mention "Big Bang Guy" because The Big Bang Theory is somewhat of a successor to Roseanne.

Spoiler Alert on final episode of Big Bang:
Indian kid gets deported, skinny weird kid discovers he's an alien, Jewish kid tries to take him home but their rocket explodes at takeoff, neurotic kid develops a pcp habit which turns his brain to jelly and he can only talk about breakfast cerial, and the hot chick marries an abusive trucker and has 13 kids with him.
Then it can be the true successor to Roseanne.

Someone needs to tell R* that happy endings don't suck. Lately they've been trying (a little too hard) to end their games on a sad note. And they're not the only ones.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Most Depressing Series Ending

The time after your favorite TV show has aired it's last episode is rough. You've lost a close friend, who you might have been with for years. What series really rubbed salt in the wound by having the most depressing ending ever?

Watch Video

"And taking a look at the long range forecast, continued snow, darkness and extreme cold. This is Howard Handupme. Goodnight. Goodbye." is the last spoken line of Dinosaurs.

But my vote still rest with ALF. Instead of being picked up by his alien friends to be taken to his new home world, he is captured by the Alien Task Force and taken to be dissected.

yeah, but he gets out of it in the end (or I guess rather the beginning). So I cant really say its that sad.

 

[K84]

Loved Dinosaurs, that ending was pretty shocking but considering all the episodes that dealt with things like; steroid use, racism, native american displacement, and so much more I guess it's not that out of the norm.
[hr]I gave up on Rosanne long before the whole lotto and heart attack stuff happened.
[hr]I never saw the end of Sliders but I have a feeling it went out with a whimper too. Can anybody fill me in? Is it a contender?

Yea Slider went out with a whimper, not a contender. Nothing really gets resolved. The season before the last one, that is where it should of ended. They combine two people into one for the sake of actors leaving and attempting to have some structure. If I remember correctly the last season didn't have the script writers of the show. Just a lot of bad blood was going on with the producers of the show and the people working on it. The real reason I think the last season is so horrible. Thinking, lets just replace them. We can keep this show going on. Pretty much if you didn't see the end of Sliders, you're better off.

Gawd. the whole show went to hell after they killed off .....a certain character.
And then the kidnapping of....a certain other character, which we see later on in a episode, fused/combined with some alien tech, only to die?......i gave up on Sliders quite fast after they started to replace...almost everybody.

Also, the ending of ...nobody knows this one, because everybody hates it i guess...
Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040.

What happens with Priss, standing naked in the desert, with no means of contacting anyone?
It just ends there....

- Dungeons and Dragons (never finished)
- Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors. (never finished)

 

[Smeatza]

In my opinion, Blackadder Goes Forth had the most depressing ending of all. Considering the entire rest of the series had been a funny, snarky comedy, the ending to the very last season takes a very depressing turn.
In the last episode, it is finally time for the final push over the top and and out of the trenches. Captain Blackadder desperately tries to get out, only to have his last attempts end in failure, Captain Darling is sent to the front by General Melchett as a "gift", when he wants nothing more than to stay OUT of the trenches, and Lieutenant George is very gung-ho about it all... until about five minutes before they are all going over the top, when he suddenly realizes that he too is scared by the prospect of dying. The last we ever see of them is when they charge out of the trenches, into the enemy's gunfire, with the theme slowly and melancholy playing in the background, before the whole scene dissolves into a field of poppies. No credits whatsoever, The End.

You forgot the most touching part.
When Baldric announces he has a cunning plan a few seconds before going over the top and instead of hearing it out and taking the piss, as Blackadder has been doing for the entire history of the program, he simply says "I'm sorry Baldric, it will have to wait" and they go over the top to their almost certain death.

No other TV show or film I've seen has been able to effectively portray the futility of war as well as that.

Blackadder goes forth has the most depressing, yet most poignant ending, hands down.

 

[Ohlookit'sMatty]

I had watch both these shows when I was growing up but I couldn't remember the ends so I youtubed them and boy was that a mistake. . . Gods damn they are depressing! Especially Roseanne, I have found memories of this show and they all came flooding back when I seen how it ended

Thanks guys for a trip down memory lane

-M